ChalkZone is an American animated television series created by Bill Burnett and Larry Huber for Nickelodeon. The series follows Rudy Tabootie, an elementary school student whose magic chalk allows him into the ChalkZone, an alternate dimension where everything drawn on a blackboard and erased becomes real. The show concentrates on the adventures of Rudy, his sidekick Snap, and classmate, Penny Sanchez, within the zone.

A popular rumor about the show is that it was based on Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings. In fact, Bill Burnett debunked this in a 2013 interview, revealing that he was not even aware of the series' existence until after ChalkZone entered production.[1]

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Rudy Tabootie (voiced by E. G. Daily) is a 10-year-old[2] fifth-grader who loves to draw, but Reggie Bullnerd (Candi Milo), the school bully, is always teasing him or getting him into trouble with Mr. Wilter (Robert Cait), Rudy's grumpy school teacher who strongly dislikes cartoons. One day Rudy discovers a piece of "White Lightning" chalk, which allows access to the ChalkZone, a place where everything and everyone that has ever been drawn in chalk and erased takes form as living or is tangible. He soon makes friends with Snap (Candi Milo), a small, blue, humanoid drawing made by Rudy when he was only eight. Snap wears a superhero uniform and is very adventurous and witty. Rudy only lets one other person know about ChalkZone, his best friend and crush Penny Sanchez (speaking voice, Hynden Walch; singing voice, Robbyn Kirmsse), who acts as the genius of the group.

While in ChalkZone, the trio are introduced to Cyclops (Rodger Bumpass), the kilt-wearing guardian of the magic chalk mines where Rudy obtains his magic chalk (Rudy later draws a second eye for him and renames him "Biclops"); Queen Rapsheeba (Rosslynn Taylor), ChalkZone's song artist whom Snap has a crush on; and Blocky (Candi Milo; Robert Cait), a light green block friend of Snap's and Rudy's first-ever drawing. They are also faced with villains such as Skrawl (Jim Cummings), a drawing who blames Rudy for being ugly and wants to destroy him; and the Craniacs (Rob Paulsen), a series of robot drawings obsessed with collecting futuristic devices.

ChalkZone was originally featured as a short on Nickelodeon's Oh Yeah! Cartoons in 1998.[3] In 1999, ChalkZone became the first spin-off of Oh Yeah! Cartoons to enter production and be greenlit.[4] Despite this, ChalkZone did not make it to the air until 2002, even though all six episodes of the first season had been completed by 2000.[5] Frederator Studios announced in 2005 that the series had been cancelled at 40 episodes.

The pilot for the series first aired on December 31, 1999 as part of Nickelodeon's annual New Years' Eve block,[6] but due to being delayed by Nickelodeon for undisclosed reasons, the series made its official premiere on March 22, 2002, as the highest-rated premiere in Nickelodeon's history up to that point.[7][8]

In June 2005, following the announcement that the series had been cancelled, the fourth season of the series premiered. Of the season's eleven episodes, only five would be aired that year before Nickelodeon abruptly halted the broadcast of new episodes. The remaining six episodes would not air until three years later in June 2008. The series finale aired on August 23, 2008. Reruns aired on Nicktoons from May 1, 2002 to October 28, 2013. ChalkZone reruns were introduced to The Splat for 2 nights on November 12, 2016. It is unknown if The Splat will air the show again in the future.

During the show's original run, there weren't any DVD releases specifically for ChalkZone, the "Christmas" episode was featured on the 2006 DVD Nick Picks Holiday. Two episodes and a music video ("Gift Adrift", "French Fry Falls", and "Escucha Mi Corazón") were released for the Nickstravaganza! 2 DVD. On October 13, 2014, ChalkZone: The Complete Series was released on DVD as a manufacture-on-demand title on Amazon, however the episode "The Smooch" was excluded from the set due to music licensing issues. A soundtrack album In the Zone has also been released.[9] The entire series is now available on Amazon Video and the PlayStation Store.